Tim Center, executive director of Sustainable Florida, standing, facilitates, from left, a conversation among Daniel Rohlf, an associate professor at Lewis & Clark in the school’s environmental and natural resources program; Amelia Savage, attorney at Hopping Green & Sams; John Kostyack, vice president of Wildlife Conservation for the National Wildlife Federation; and Reed Noss, Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Central Florida during a panel on Feb. 22 at the 40th Annual Public Environmental Interest Conference at UF Law. (Photo by Maggie Powers)

By Lindsey Tercilla
Student writer

More than 250 students and environmentalists reflected on 40 years of the Endangered Species Act at the 19^th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference Feb. 21-23.

The conference, which spanned Thursday to Saturday, included multiple panel discussions, a workshop sponsored by The Florida Bar, and training opportunities for attorneys and those outside the legal field.

Tim Center, executive director of Sustainable Florida, facilitated a Friday afternoon conversation among a panel of speakers about the ESA’s future in Florida.

While the act has been a great tool in providing protection for many species, John Kostyack, vice president of Wildlife Conservation for the National Wildlife Federation, observed that the act has not evolved to account for species migration.

“The ESA is one small tool in a larger tool box,” he said. “Ninety percent of the force to change the act will be through economic incentive.”

Kostyack then posed the question of whether or not there is a happy meeting ground for how to change the act.

Amelia Savage, attorney at Hopping Green & Sams, assists developers in acquiring building permits navigating the regulatory process, the legislative arena, or a litigation setting with regard to environmental law. Savage provided a different perspective from the land development and construction side of the argument.

Daniel Rohlf, an associate professor at Lewis & Clark in the school’s environmental and natural resources program, focused on addressing sections four and seven of the ESA. The difficulty comes with defining an endangered species.

“It’s amazing that we still aren’t sure what an endangered species is,” he said.

There’s also the question of how much security we want for species biodiversity.

Classifying endangered species, amending the act, and accounting for a sufficient amount of biodiversity are all at the forefront of environmentalists’ minds. However, one major thing that affects the ESA and environment alike is our ever-growing population.

Reed Noss, Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Central Florida, spoke about this growth in relation to new species and our duty to the environment.

“There’s a lot going on simply due to population growth and overconsumption that could lead to the extinction of some species before we’ve even named them,” Noss said. “We are custodians and stewards of the land. The land is not a commodity that belongs to us.”

Keynote speakers for this year’s conference included Carl Safina, founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute and award winning author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross, and Zygmunt Plater and Patrick Parenteau, attorneys in the landmark decision of Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill et al. – temporarily halting the completion of the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River in order to protect the snail darter, an endangered species of fish.

Conservation Clinic students work on water quality issues with a woods restoration consultant and an Adventure Outfitters guide along the springs coast at the Florida Chassahowitzka River during a fall 2012 field trip.

By Francie Weinberg
Student writer

Looking for a chance to work with clients and make a difference in the world? Housed at the law school’s Center for Governmental Responsibility, the University of Florida Levin College of Law Conservation Clinic offers both law and graduate students the opportunity to work on cutting-edge environmental and land use law and policy issues.

The Conservation Clinic provides upper-level environmental law students and graduate students in conservation-related fields with exposure to environmental and land use professional practice, applied research and public policy analysis under the supervision of Professor Thomas Ankersen, the clinic’s faculty adviser.

Interested students need to have completed three semesters and can earn up to six credits in two semesters. Of the students who apply, Ankersen accepts between nine to 12 students per semester. While most accepted students are involved in the Environmental and Land Use Law Program, students in other areas can apply and can benefit from the clinic. The clinic emphasizes applied research and writing as well as speaking skills, and the ability to work with Ph.D. and other graduate students is a unique aspect of the Conservation Clinic.

After graduating from UF Law in 1986, Ankersen practiced in an environmental law firm in Miami for five years. He then spent a year with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund where he developed an interest in international law that brought him back to UF Law and a series of projects in Latin America, India and Africa.

Ankersen started the clinic in 2002 when faculty saw the need to expand its Environmental and Land Use curriculum and students were seeking skills training in the area. Over the past 10 years, the program has grown exponentially and the clinic is an essential part. The program is now fifth among public colleges and ninth overall, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.

“Anything that you can do to demonstrate that you have real world experience is going to help you get a job,” Ankersen said. “If you’re working on projects that require you to understand an area of law Florida’s water law and do an analysis for a client that leads to a change in the law, or even an internal decision that client makes, that’s something you’ll do when you’re practicing law. That’ll definitely be recognized by a potential employer – in addition to providing a public service.”

So many people are interested in the clinic’s services that Ankersen said they’ve had to turn projects away. He picks projects based on what he thinks students will get value out of, whether their work will have an impact, and if the client would be able to accomplish its goals without the help of the clinic.

Past projects have included drafting local ordinances and comprehensive plan amendments, obtaining environmental permits for coastal restoration and preparing contracts for environmental service payments. Clinic clients include the Sea Turtle Conservancy, the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education and the Blue Water Initiative. Occasionally students have opportunities to work on international law projects or with local governments.

Chelsea Sims (3L) began her work in the Conservation Clinic while studying abroad in Costa Rica. Her first project was for The Nature Conservancy, where she worked to help ensure that environmental service concessions benefit indigenous communities.

Sims then took on the Blue Water Intitiative, Inc., a reef restoration and conservation nonprofit, whose main project is removing tires from the Osborne Reef off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. This reef was home to more than 1 million tires that were dumped in the 1970s in an attempt to create an artificial reef. Years of currents and hurricanes have become dislodged tires from the main tire field and they are destroying real reefs by bumping into and crushing them.

Sims helped the Blue Water Initiative obtain the necessary state and federal permits to remove the loose tires and dispose of them. She went with Blue Water Initiative members on their first dive to remove about 100 tires. The group no longer needs the clinic’s services, but asked Sims to remain on its board of directors to help with future legal issues.

“The clinic taught me real-world skills that cannot be learned through lectures and books,” Sims said. “It introduced me to a great network of people in the field I want to work in when I graduate, and it allowed me to work on a range of projects so I could discover what areas I would like to work in when I have my own career.”

The Environmental and Land Use Law Program, the Conservation Clinic and the Public Interest Environmental Conference all represent the College of Law’s commitment to developing the skills of tomorrow’s environmental lawyers to face tomorrow’s environmental problems.

Carol Browner (JD 79) spoke of her work experiences under the Clinton and Obama Administration and of the importance to protect the environment during her keynote address at PIEC Friday. (Photo by Marcela Suter)

Forty years ago, drivers could buy a gallon of gasoline with just a few coins, the Cuyahoga River smoldered rather than flowed and the two most significant water laws in our state and nation — the Florida Water Resources Act and the Clean Water Act — took effect.

“No question. The waters are cleaner. We’re closer to the goals of the Clean Water Act,” said Jonathan Cannon, a PIEC panelist and former Environmental Protection Agency general counsel, said. “But we seem to have hit a plateau.”

More than 300 registrants attended panels and events held Thursday through Saturday at UF Law’s 18th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference, “Fishable, Swimmable? 40 Years of Water Law in Florida and the United States.” The conference brought together land use lawyers, journalists, legislators, authors, historians and water warriors from across the nation.

Speaker after speaker, including keynote addresses from Richard Ausness (JD 68) and longtime federal environmental policymaker Carol Browner (JD 79), came together for a weekend with one unified message: We’re not swimming; we’re sinking.

“It’s sort of like a midlife crisis,” said Richard Hamann, another PIEC panelist and assistant director of UF Law’s Center for Governmental Responsibility. “That’s where we’re at now.”

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of former UF Law Dean Frank Maloney drafting the Florida Water Resources Act (FWRA), an act that created a statewide system of five water management districts to govern the Sunshine State’s water, this year’s PIEC fell smack dab in the middle of a political whirlpool over what to do with the state’s water.

In what would be the largest change to the FWRA in 40 years, the Florida Legislature is debating a bill that would redefine state water rights.

Florida law subjects all state waters to permitting based on “beneficial use in the public interest.” The bill before the Legislature would remove reclaimed water, wastewater that is treated for reuse, from consideration as a “water of the state” and give ownership of that water to the utility companies who control its distribution. The water management districts would, if the bill passes, lose control over reclaimed water.

In most states, the issue of who owns cleaned sewage would be a rather unimportant question. But for Florida, the state leading the nation in reclaimed water use with 10 percent of the state’s daily water needs, a state often plagued by droughts and saddled with watering restrictions, the issue of who owns sewage is vital.

“The decision makers have lost sight of what doctors take an oath on, and that’s ‘Do no harm,’” said Daniel Fernandez (JD 76), an assistant professor at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Lugert School of Business.

And in the nation’s fourth-most-populous state with a population that’s nearly tripled since the Clean Water Act and the FWRA became law, the issue of water has only grown in importance over the years.

“We have three times as many people as we did 40 years ago. We have to create all this water,” said Henry Dean, former executive director of both the St. John’s River Water Management District and the South Florida Water Management District. “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken feathers.”

Even Browner, one of the conference’s keynote speakers, a former secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Regulation, EPA administrator during the entire 1990s and White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy director during the first half of the Obama administration, had a sobering view of Florida’s watery narrative.

“Water is Florida’s lifeblood; it’s what our economy is based on,” she said in her keynote address. “Imagine if Texas was treating its oil like we treated our water. We’d be horrified.”

But Browner also provided hope to conference attendees at the annual PIEC banquet.

“The responsibility of environmental protection is one that will always be with us,” she said. “We must rededicate ourselves to solve these challenges. I’m not suggesting that this will be easy, but we have to get started.”

Carol Browner (JD 79) will give a keynote speech Feb. 24 during UF Law's 18th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference.

The University of Florida Levin College of Law will welcome alumna Carol Browner (JD 79), former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, as keynote speaker for the 18th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference.

“Fishable? Swimmable? 40 Years of Water Law in Florida and the United States” will be held Feb. 23-25 at UF Law and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of two of the most significant laws guiding water policy in Florida — the federal Clean Water Act and the influential Florida Water Resources Act.

Browner has administered both acts during her career. She was Florida’s Secretary of Environmental Regulation from 1991 to 1993, before serving in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993 to 2001. Browner was the longest serving administrator in the agency’s history. According to Time Magazine, Clinton’s former chief of staff called her “the greatest administrator [the] EPA ever had.” More recently, Browner directed the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy from 2009 to 2011 under President Barack Obama.

Browner has vast experience in developing environmental policies and helped initiate the Food Quality Protection Act, which brought pesticide use standards up to date, and worked with Congress to reauthorize the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The conference will bring together others who have played a valuable role in shaping Florida’s water policy.

The conference begins the evening of Feb. 23, with a reception featuring University of Kentucky Professor of Law Richard Ausness, one of the authors of the 1971 Model Water Code, upon which Florida’s groundbreaking water law was largely based. A plenary session the following morning will feature UF Law’s Richard Hamann and University of Virginia law professor and former EPA General Counsel Jonathan Cannon presenting a retrospective of both acts and the key cases and policy debates that have shaped them. The plenary will continue with a facilitated session of attorneys, lawmakers and administrators whose careers have shaped, and been shaped by, the Florida law.

A special brown-bag lunch event will feature authors of both recent and forthcoming “water books” discussing the role of writers in focusing attention on water policy in Florida, facilitated by Florida Trend Magazine‘s Cynthia Barnett. Afternoon concurrent panels will develop the themes of “Water+Quality,” “Water+Quantity” and “Water+Change.” The Friday night banquet will feature Browner as the keynote speaker.

Saturday’s sessions will be devoted to the current practice of water law and on the future of Florida’s water resources, including a forum led by the newly established Florida Conservation Coalition, a jobs session for Florida’s future environmental and land use lawyers, and a practice-based skills session sponsored by the Public Interest Committee of the Environmental and Land Use Law Section of The Florida Bar. The conference will wrap up with a facilitated session addressing the development of a water ethic in Florida.

To register, visit http://www.law.ufl.edu/piec/registration.shtml. To download this year’s agenda, go to http://www.law.ufl.edu/piec/pdf/PIEC-Agenda-2012.pdf.

Princeton professor and author Robert Socolow, co-creator of the "Stabilization Wedge Game," gave keynote remarks during PIEC. He has done recent work on high carbon emitters, carbon capture and storage, and biofuels. (Photo by Vincent Massaro)

“The era of cheap energy is coming to an end,” warned J. Peter Byrne, professor and director of the Center for Energy and Climate Policy at the University of Delaware, at the conference’s opening plenary. Byrne, a shareholder recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, addressed “U.S. Energy Obesity” and described ways society can reduce energy consumption.

The student-run conference continues to draw people from across the country, even in its 17th year. University of Florida Law Professor Alyson Flournoy credits the continued success to the conference’s reputation of having an interesting, broad agenda featuring a diverse group of speakers.

“Including speakers from government, NGOs, universities, and industry helps to broaden people’s perspectives,” Flournoy said.

This year’s conference — “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Our Energy Future” — will focus on renewable and non-renewable sources of energy; how that energy is distributed and its relationship to economic development, environmental protection and social justice.

The keynote speakers at the conference will be Buddy MacKay, a former Florida governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. representative and state legislator, and Princeton University Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Robert Socolow — an expert on global energy resources and climate change mitigation, and a pioneer in environmental studies.

The conference will feature a wide variety of panels dealing with various energy-related topics, including the 2010 Gulf oil spill and the licensing of new nuclear power plants in Florida. Guest panelists will range from representatives of government agencies and public interest organizations to international scholars and industry experts. Two Saturday morning workshops will focus on green jobs and what endangered species laws mean to the average homeowner.

The Public Interest Environmental Conference provides a forum for an exchange of ideas among private, government, and public interest lawyers; students and academics; environmental professionals, advocates and activists, and the interested public.

Media are welcome to attend the conference, but must register to attend Friday’s banquet, which is filling up fast. Registration will also be accepted at the conference on Thursday and Friday. For more information, agenda and to register, visit http://www.law.ufl.edu/piec/.

The conference is free for all UF students, faculty, and staff.